Interview and Gift Card Giveaway with Kate Hardy

Please welcome Kate Hardy, author of ‘Tis the Season to Kiss Santa, one of the bite-sized new novellas in the Baby, It’s Cold Outside holiday anthology! Take a few minutes out of your day to read about Kate’s love for music, cooking, and long walks on the English coast.

When you are getting ready to start a new book, what’s the first thing you do?

Tidy my desk – it’s always a total mess by the time I’ve finished a book! And then I make the playlist for the book – the stuff I listen to on the way home from school that sets the mood for the book.

How do you celebrate when you finish writing a book?

I’m superstitious so I wait until the book has been revised and accepted before I celebrate. And then I buy a bottle of Chablis to share with my husband, and a Pandora bead for my bracelet – it’s usually something to do with the book (so, because this one is all to do with snow, I have a snowflake on it!).

Do you usually begin a book with a character or a plot?

Usually the characters and the first scene – I tend to wake up with them in my head.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

If you’re writing category fiction, read as much as you can and target the line you enjoy best – that’s the one that’s most likely to fit with your writing voice. Get to know your characters well and remember that your reader wants to fall in love with your hero and be best friends with your heroine, so make them as rounded as you can.

Who are your favorite authors? What authors have influenced your book?

Sort of in between – I’m very much a plotter, but if my characters come up with better ideas as I’m writing, I go with the flow 🙂 I need to start with a plot written down, though, or I end up spending all my time avoiding the blank screen and playing word games online.

Where does the magic happen? Where do you write?

Most of the time I write on the Mac in my office, surrounded by rather a lot of books and my guitar, and with a spaniel snoring his head off next to my desk; but if it’s a nice morning I might go and work in the garden with my iPad (or even in the conservatory). Revisions are always done on a paper copy of the book at the dining room table, but I sometimes get distracted by the piano…

Aside from writing, what do you do in your free time?

You’ve probably already worked out from the previous question that I’m a bit of a music junkie. I also love the theatre and the cinema, and as my son is doing his GCSEs at the moment and his English and Drama teachers said we need to take him to lots of performances, I have a great excuse! We also live about 40 minutes away from a really nice coastline (North Norfolk, in the UK), and I love going for a walk by the sea at the weekend. I enjoy cooking – as you might notice on my website, I have recipes for most of my books. (And that comes with a consequence all of its own – put it this way, I now have gym membership…)

Do you prefer print books or eBooks?

I’ve literally JUST got my very first e-reader. (Well, I’ve had an iPad since they first came out, but I use it for writing and email rather than reading because it’s a bit heavy to read in bed.) With a cover, it feels like a ‘real’ book and it has a lit screen, so I’m not going to be nagged to turn the bedside light off! But I do love the feel of a print book. Especially nice glossy hardback books. So at the moment it’s both!

Giveaway

Kate is launching a week-long giveaway for a $10 Amazon gift card here and at every other stop this week on the Baby, It’s Cold Outside Holiday Blog Tour, including:

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

‘Tis the Season to Kiss Santa

With the help of a sprig of mistletoe and some snow angels, a recently single pastry chef teaches a highly successful and sexy Scrooge the true meaning of the holidays on a snowy Christmas Eve that quickly heats up.

Kati, what’s next? Thanks for asking 🙂 In Feb I have my ballroom dancing book out with HQ (Ballroom to Bride and Groom) and a medical romance, The Brooding Doc’s Redemption (that’s the one with the bluebells and the gorgeous chocolate labrador); in July it’s A Date with the Ice Princess (with a hero who’s amazingly OTT and the total opposite of the heroine – I do like writing ‘opposites attract books’); and I’m just finishing a romance partly set in Paris (so now I’ve given myself a craving for macaroons, and I don’t even like them! … but there is a very nice French patisserie that just opened in my home town, so I guess I’ll have to take the kids there as research). Rachael, Jessie and Shannon, great to meet you 🙂 Rhianna, I’m always up for partying with family and friends (board games, too much talking and too much laughing – and we won’t talk about the chocolate consumption!). Rubyswan, nice to meet you. Happy holidays, all!